Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
The Wobbly Goat Cafe's date scones
Makes 7 large scones
Ingredients
2½ cups dates, diced
3½ cups self-raising flour
2 cups butter, grated and loosely packed
1 cup cream
1 cup lemonade
Method
Place dates in a bowl. (You may wish to soak the dates in boiling water for 1-2 minutes before draining thoroughly, depending on the dryness of your dates, but this step is entirely optional.)
Add self-raising flour into the bowl with the dates. Grate in butter, as much or as little as you desire.
Using a wooden spoon, mix the butter, dates and flour together evenly.
Pour cream and lemonade (any old brand will do, preferably fresh and not flat) into a measuring jug and mix together with a rubber scraper.
Pour approximately half of the cream-lemonade mixture into the dry mixture. Begin to fold together with the wooden spoon until more wet mixture is required; continue adding and folding until the mixture forms a dough.
Sprinkle your bench with (self-raising) flour and tip the dough on to it. Using single-use gloves (or your clean bare hands if you don't mind getting messy) shape the dough into a rough ball.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until about 1.5-2cm thick; use a little self-raising flour if it becomes too sticky.
Using a large scone/cookie cutter, cut seven scones from the dough, pinching the funny-shaped bits left behind back into the dough as you go.
You may shape the scones a little rounder or leave them as they are before placing them a few centimetres apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Cook at 170degC fanbake for 7-8 minutes, turn the tray around in the oven and then cook for a further 15-20 minutes, depending on the oven. (This ensures they cook evenly if your oven has a hot spot like ours!)
A cake tester inserted through the middle of a scone will come out cleanly once cooked.
Recipe requested by Natalie Beath.
Recipe provided by the Wobbly Goat.
If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.